The nacelle of aircraft engines, particularly turbofan engines, comprises right and left cowls having a C-shaped cross section in a transverse plane perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the engine covering internal parts of it that shall be operable to provide access to internal components of the engine for maintenance purposes. The upper edges of both cowls are articulated in the upper part of the engine by a hinge. When the aircraft is in flight, the cowls are closed ensuring aerodynamic continuity of the nacelle. The lower edges of the cowls are provided with latching mechanisms that latch the cowls in their closed position when the mechanisms are actuated.
The latching mechanisms are formed by cooperating male and female parts mounted on the respective lower edges of the cowls. In order to avoid an operator forgetting to actuate them when the cowls are in the closed position the nacelle is usually provided with a closure fault indicator.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,666,408 B1 discloses a closure fault indicator comprising retractable abutment members automatically maintaining the cowls spaced from one another in a visible manner, when the cowls are moved from their open position into their closed position after having finished engine maintenance tasks.
Another closure fault indicator is disclosed in US 2010/006701 A1.
Although the solutions proposed by the prior art for latching the cowls have avoided some of the problems involved in their opening and closing operations some unresolved problems remain.
One of them is that the separation between the cowls after being unlatched does not provide enough space to the operator for an easy manipulation of the cowls in the opening operation.
Another problem is that the cowls may be misaligned in its closed position due to its large size which implies the need of manual alignment operations by the operator so that they can be latched.
This disclosure herein is addressed to the solution of the problems.